


An experiment

by Esti7310



Series: Dante's POV [2]
Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Re-written scene, a lil angsty, they'll be happy later i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 13:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10968078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esti7310/pseuds/Esti7310
Summary: Dante talks Ari into breaking his rule against kissing boys.(Scene from the book where they first kiss, but from Dante's point of view)





	An experiment

I’d been working on a painting of Ari’s truck, the bright red surrounded by dark greens and browns and a painted layer of rain. I wanted to be able to feel the rain through the painting, but it wasn’t working very well. It just looked like paint streaks. I was adding more greys when I heard a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” I asked, grabbing a cover so I could throw it over my easel quickly if anyone came in.

“Ari and his family are coming for dinner,” my mom said from outside, “I think I forgot to tell you.”

“Cool,” I answered, “when?”

“Half an hour or so.”

“Okay,” I called back. I waited until I heard her walking away, and then I turned back to painting.

Ari.

The summer had been hard, and maybe a little awkward. We sort of talked about everything I’d told him, about wanting to kiss a boy and be with a boy, but nothing specific. He knew I loved him. Ari didn’t have anything against it, but he was carefully not physical with me, careful not to say anything that might cross a line.

I was careful with him, too, but I got tired of careful. Careful was boring. Careful kept us stuck in this place that felt like it was only halfway to where we should be. I wanted to throw away careful and be honest, just once.

I set down my paintbrush, covered the painting, and sat on my bed, thinking. I thought about kissing him. I thought about that a lot. I could picture him perfectly, with a little half-smile and warm brown eyes, looking at me. I tried not to think about it when I was with him, but it was even harder when he was right there.

Sometimes I wondered. Sometimes he would look at me a certain way, and my imagination would run off and leave rational thought behind in the dust. I always reigned it in, though.

I heard another knock at my door, and I almost fell off the bed, shocked back into reality. I took a deep breath and called, “come in!”

Ari opened the door and stepped inside, grinning at me with his usual half-smile and warm eyes.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

“What’re you painting?”

“Nothing.”

“Lots of nothing today?”

“I guess,” I said.

“Can I see?” he asked, pointing at the easel.

“No.”

“When you finish?”

“Yes. When I finish.” That painting wouldn’t be finished until I had perfected the rain, and I was never going to be able to perfect the rain. Hopefully I’d never have to show him.

Ari sat in my chair, spinning back and forth. “Read any good books of poems lately?” he asked. I glanced at him, then quickly looked away. My imagination was running again.

“No, not really,” I answered.

“Where are you, Dante?” he asked.

“I’m here,” I said, sitting up. “I was thinking about the kissing thing.”

That sentence itself was innocent enough, I thought. Not too risky. I was only throwing away a little bit of caution.

“Oh,” said Ari.

“I mean, how do you know that you don’t like kissing boys if you’ve never kissed one?”

“I think you just know, Dante,” he said. His voice had gotten all quiet, and his eyes were locked on me.

“Well, have you ever?” I asked.

“You know I haven’t. Have you?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe you don’t really like kissing guys,” he said. “Maybe you just think you do.”

“I think we should try an experiment,” I said. To hell with careful.

“I know what you’re going to say and the answer is no.” He was looking away now.

“You’re my best friend, right?”

“Yes. But right now I’m really regretting it.”

“Let’s just try it.”

“No.”

“I won’t tell anyone. Come on.”

“No.”

“Look, it’s just a kiss,” I said. My heart was pounding. “You know. And then we’ll both know.”

“We already do know.”

But he wasn’t moving. He’d leaned forward, towards me. His eyes glanced to my lips. I’m not sure if he even noticed. I sure did.

“We won’t really know until we actually do it.”

“No.” Another glance to my mouth.

“Ari, please.”

“Dante.”

“Stand up,” I whispered.

He did, right away. He locked his eyes on mine.

I stood up in front of him. He took a half-step towards me.

“Close your eyes,” I whispered.

He did. I took his hand.

And then I kissed him.

And he leaned into it. He was kissing me back. _Ari was kissing me._ He kept his arms at his sides, but he let me hold his hand. He tasted like coffee, just like I’d guessed. His hand was warm and his kissing was soft and careful. 

I put my other hand on the back of his neck and pushed further, thinking I could. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He pulled away.

I stared at him, breathless. He bit his lip.

“Well?” I asked finally.

“Didn’t work for me,” he said. He was out of breath too.

And for a second, I hated him. I hated his beautiful eyes and his dark hair and his soft kisses, because how could that not have worked for him? How could I fall more and more in love with him while he stood there, feeling nothing?

“Nothing?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. It sure worked for me.” I tried not to let the anger into my voice.

“Yeah,” he said, “I think I get that, Dante.”

“So, well, that’s over with, then, huh?” I couldn’t just let it go. 

He just said, “Yeah.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“A little.”

I sat down and studied the floor. We would glance up and catch each other's gaze, then quickly look away again.

“I’m more mad at myself,” Ari said finally. “I always let you talk me into things. It’s not your fault.”

My fault. Like this was some awful accident and not a kiss, a kiss I’d been waiting for and picturing over and over and over.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“Don’t cry, okay?” he said softly. That made tears well up in my eyes.

“Okay,” I said.

“You’re crying.”

“I’m not.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

He didn’t say anything. I stopped looking at him.

“I have to go,” he said finally, standing up and crossing to the door. “I’m sorry, Dante.”

“You shouldn’t be,” I said, looking over at him. “It was my idea. It was a bad idea.”

Ari shrugged. “No. You’re right. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.” We both knew it was.

I missed him as soon as he left, and I replayed the kiss in my head for half the night, trying to perfectly imagine how his lips felt on my lips, how his hand felt in my hand. I pretended he hadn't pulled away. 

That kiss was a terrible idea. 

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Comments/kudos/feedback make me a happy writer! I'm planning on writing more fics from Dante's POV, so if you have any suggestions of scenes I should write, you can let me know in the comments. Thank you so so much for reading!


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